QUESTION OF THE DAY for Thursday: Have You Stopped Reading Newspaper in Print?

Earlier this month  we introduced a popular new daily feature. Every weekday we will post a burning, or sometimes offbeat, newspaper industry/media issue here and at our main site. We urge you to comment to get the ball rolling and, we hope, take part in an ongoing debate on that issue. Then another question the next day. 

Today's question is found in headline above.  Have you switched over fully, or only partly to the Web? Will you always stick by print at least in part?  What is driving your current habits?

You don't have to register. Just hit the comments link at bottom of this and enter your opinion and then return to see what others are saying.    Thanks for taking part at the outset as we try to make this grow.

 

Comments

[LMAO]

I read local on print and others on line. Included on the online reading is E&P but even that may stop given the lack of any meaningful newspaper industry coverage and a very clear bias that has long irritated me. I still do not know why letters to the editor have been either hidden or eliminated but I assume the negative comments got to be too much

[Ian]

Web only, in large part because I want to be a news researcher, not a news reader. If I don't understand a phrase, or a historical reference, or I want a more well rounded view of a person they are talking about, I want to be able to quickly click on another tab and do a google search and learn a bit more so that I can get a better grasp of the article, the topic, and whether it is fully telling the story.

With print, all you have is what they tell you, which recent history has proven in quite limited if not false.

[Wes Pedersen]

Have I stopped reading newspapers? Of course not. But I do find myself enjoying them less. The bite seems to have gone out of too many of them as they seek ways to stay alive by resorting to strategies that do not work. Perhaps my sense of deprivation stems in part from the automatic "where's the rest?" feeling I get each morning when I pick up the four newspapers I normally read and find them literally lightweight, and, later,content light.

[Fred Wilkinson]

I prefer WSJ and NYT print editions.

Other than those two, online only -- and I'm a 15-year newspaperman.

[Sarah Rose Hurt]

NYT's Week in Review and Sunday magazine. Crossword. Cannot live without it. Yet.

[Michael]

I read NY Times on weekends, and sometimes Boston Globe which we still get delivered daily. Work week, web is easier, though the thought pieces and features from Sunday paper last me through midweek.

[James Crockett]

While I enjoy reading news online, I tend to read topic driven news online - items that I track or I find interesting that others point out.

Whereas with a newspaper it is smoething I tend to read more out of circumstance such as when I'm at the coffee shop, or out for breakfast. I guess for me that connection between the daily news and the daily coffee is a hard connection to break.

[JayAckroyd]

Paper is portable, requires no power, no internet connection, and is a great random access device. And I can write in it.

Perfect for subway reading. If I drove to work, different story, I think.

I do think a kindle like device tied to subscriptions is where we will end up--for the convenience elements I mention above.

[Michele Douglas]

I still read my local paper. I will also read NYT at my local coffee shop. But, as someone else said, the enjoyment I used to have is gone. The local paper, owned by Gannett, is so flimsy and the reporting/writing has become so dumbed-down and USAToday in format that it's no longer enjoyable. Where is the depth? Where is the courage? Where is the CONTENT!?

[Thomas Guzman]

I still read newspapers but not to the same degree that I used to. I read quite a few internet news sites for national and international news but I read the newspapers for local news and feature sections like food, travel and business. When I read the paper I am more open to reading other kinds of news than the narrowly focused news I hunt for on the Internet, I must confess that the papers kind of make it easier for me to read other views which I sometimes avoid on the Internet.

[Thomas Guzman]

For my second comment I have to say that the way the newspapers caved in to Bush on the Iraq war has also left me less than excited about supporting a media that failed us so miserably.
I know that not everyone was embedded with the Bush agenda, but I can't help feeling I was let down as an American citizen who believed that the press kept an eye out for the people.

[SJoyal]

I've been a subscriber to several very good papers, including the Sacramento Bee. But judging from my own experience and the evidence I see (stacks of papers still in plastic bags or with rubber bands around them, gathering dust in the homes of clients)no one has time or inclination to peruse the paper now.
I never did get into the ritual of paper and morning coffee, and I'm 52 years old. It was easy to get into the ritual I do follow, of hot tea and cereal while reading Google's headline stories in the categories I'm interested in. Armed with the stories gleaned from traditional media and conveniently gathered together for me by Google, I then hit the blogs for some opinion and even research, which seems to be beyond the capability of most traditional journalists now. They prefer to parrot the talking points of both parties, without any additional information or facts to support either opinion. To get that, you have to go to blogs now. Recently, due to all the hoopla, I've begun following some Tweeters and that is pretty informative and addictive, too.
No trees are killed, no papers gathering dust, and the information is always fresh.

[mrmmd]

I have stopped (years ago) getting the local newspaper and (sadly) about a year ago quit getting the Sunday NYT. But I still enjoy reading newspapers when the opportunity presents itself. Newspapers still have a "connection" with many older people that they will lose forever unless they stop with their self-destructive reporting policies. I long for the Old Gray Lady to proclaim "Obamacare Will Bankrupt The Nation" or something similar. We want to come back to you!

[Linda]

We maintain a subscription to the print edition of one paper - our local county paper that publishes twice a week. The Washington Post is delivered in our area but I lost any trust in it several years ago based on its coverage of Iraq. I use my RSS reader to scan articles from about 30 different online publications daily and find that very satisfactory. I also feel good that we are not adding newsprint to the landfill as we did for so many years.